co durham boy

If it doesn't include Qatari's it doesn't have a chance to get off the ground . Expats have no influence here and there opinions do not matter. They will make do with what their hosts offer them.

Qatar is a place where you've either got 5 * or pure shit , no inbetween and even the so called 5* comes in around 4 at tops .

Go to the Grand Hyatt and the Ritz Carlton in Doha and then visit the corresponding hotels in Dubai and you'll see loads of differences . The hotels in Dubai are geared for tourists , visitors and guests , hotels in Qatar are geared for Qatari's and Qatari's only.

Most expats here i know keep themselves to themselves here and try and keep out of the system and get away as much as possible . Qatar has the potential to be a cracking little city but the only thing stopping them is the Qatari's themselves !

The Dean

Reading this thread, I'm getting a confused picture: Qatar pushed hard to be awarded the 2022 World Cup, but doesn't want "cheap tourism"?

All together now: "Ing-er-lund, Ing-er-lund, Ing-er-lund..........."

Boomhauer

I wish fans will vote with their feet and pockets and boycott Qatar.Heck SA was boycotted during Apartheid so why not these pro slavery/human trafficking supporting Gulf states.

I don't think it would be realistic to boycott watching, just from going to Qatar specifically for the games.

The Dean

Good point - they are worth boycotting just for that horrendous Aspire academy jobby alone.......... a number of young African boys will, it seems, never see their families again.

co durham boy

That's a good call , not many people are aware what goes on there , scandalous beyond regard !

The Dean

Extract from an old Observer article:

Spoil sports
Richard Gillis, Brian Oliver and Nial Briggs
Sunday November 11, 2007


The centrepiece of Qatar's sports strategy is the astonishing multi-sport facility called the Aspire Zone. This is a huge site that houses a large indoor arena, air-conditioned stables and a host of state-of-the-art facilities that allowed 10 of the sports of the Asian Games to be staged under one roof simultaneously. A feature of the coverage was an indoor blimp that flew inside the main arena to film the action. An underground football stadium is being built before the Asian Cup.
It is also the home of the Aspire Academy, an organisation that recently drew criticism from Sepp Blatter, head of Fifa, world football's governing body. This is not good news for Qatar and Dubai, both of whom covet the World Cup - perhaps in 2018 - and have been encouraged by Blatter's decision to end Fifa's rotation policy, leaving the field open to bidders from all territories. Neither the Olympics nor the World Cup has ever been held in an Arab state.
Blatter believes that Aspire Africa, a scholarship programme for young footballers launched by the Qatar set-up, is exploiting boys in seven countries - Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Algeria. Aspire is using 6,000 staff to assess more than half a million boys, all of them born in 1994, in 700 locations in those seven countries.
The point? According to Aspire, it is to give the best of those boys a chance to gain an education and top coaching in Doha. To others, it is human trafficking, with the sole intention of providing Qatar with footballers for their future national team - not much different to the way a club, rather than a country, usually operates.
In a candid response to a letter sent by five members of the European Parliament, raising concerns over the Aspire project, disclosed to Observer Sport, Blatter acknowledges that 'their establishment of recruitment networks in these seven African countries reveals just what Aspire is all about. Aspire offers a good example of... exploitation'.
The Aspire Academy cost $1.3billion to build in Doha and the Qatar is bill it as 'an incredible opportunity for talented young African boys to reach the heights of international football in the future'. Aspire was launched by Pele and also gained support from, among others, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Zinedine Zidane, Maradona and Glenn Hoddle.
The scheme is highly controversial and Jean-Claude M'Bvoumin, president of Culture Foot Solidaire, the Paris-based organisation that campaigns against the trafficking of African footballers, asked Blatter to stop the Aspire project. 'Aspire Africa is an illegal project which violates the Fifa rules concerning the protection of minors,' says M'Bvoumin, a former professional footballer in Cameroon. 'It's strictly prohibited under Fifa regulations to recruit young foreign footballers aged less than 13, which is the case here. From an ethical point of view it is a catastrophe. It's a way for Aspire to say that with money you can do anything you want.'
Aspire's sports director, Dr Andreas Bleicher, insists that their motives for undertaking the project are genuine. 'In Qatar, our level is OK but it's not world-class level. We are convinced that we need to bring the better players in so they can train together with them and they can compete against them. This is the way that our local players can develop.'

Boomhauer

^^^^

I guess it's an improvement over kidnapping young Asian and African boys to race camels, just to entertain some fat arsed, overfed, haughty,arrogant, lazy, worthless excuse for a human .